


Stepping into a Punch

by sbarmarj



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, really just a hint of Maria/Steve
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-22
Packaged: 2018-05-28 10:10:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6324946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbarmarj/pseuds/sbarmarj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Fury were ever forced to admit why he chose Maria Hill as his number two from the World Council’s approved list of possible deputies, he would say it was because of her unparalleled competence in the face of disaster. </p><p>It was true.</p><p>He would also be lying. </p><p>Nick Fury has given Maria Hill many hard assignments, but asking her to babysit the Avengers instead of helping Coulson rebuild SHIELD was the hardest one by far.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stepping into a Punch

“Excuse me, sir.” 

Maria spoke quietly and with the steely resolve that she had relied on for the last few days. Gone was her subdued droll tone and the hint of compassion in her eyes that made her such a compelling leader. Instead, she spoke with the tranquil indifference that marked her rare moments of anger. She was sitting across from him in their secret bunker reviewing the last few details before his imminent disappearance now that SHIELD was destroyed and Alexander Pierce dead. Her body language was just shy of a soldier at ease, and that put Fury on edge. 

If Fury were ever forced to admit why he chose Maria Hill as his number two from the World Council’s approved list of possible deputies, he would say it was because of her unparalleled competence in the face of disaster. 

Maria had not been the most qualified—or best—candidate on the list, though her inclusion had not been remiss. The World Council put her forward because she was a good candidate and not one of his favorites. When he chose her as deputy they could not disagree with him even if they hadn’t expected the choice and didn’t like it at all. They recognized that Maria Hill was an excellent administrator, shrewd judge of character, and decisive commander. She also made it clear she had little time for the Council’s politics and interference, which Fury considered a good attribute in a Deputy Director. 

But, he chose her for her competence and that was the answer he would give if anyone ever asked.

It was true.

He would also be lying. 

Fury chose her, for several reasons, not the least of which was her edifying ability to call her superiors on their shit and to sound exceedingly polite while she did it. Fury knew that he was a better commander when he had her looking over his shoulder. She could be abrasive, judgmental, rigid, and dogged, but she was never shy. Often quiet, but it was a fool who thought that silence was anything other than an astute tactic on her part. 

“I’m sorry, I thought I heard you say that I would not be assisting with the rebuilding of SHIELD.” Maria’s tone was level, her inflection calm, and her words polite, but Fury heard her anger, confusion, and general disbelief at his pronouncement. 

“It’s complicated, Hill.” Fury sighed with more exhaustion than he wanted to admit to feeling.

She did not rush to reply, and he knew she would not be pressured into speaking so he waited for her to talk. 

Fury took the silent moment to wonder, not for the first time, how many of Hill’s commanders mistook her patient reticence as proof that she had no personality. He wasn’t sure that he would have given her file a second look if she had applied through normal channels. 

However, she hadn’t applied through normal channels. Her actions in Madripoor were the best letter of interest she could have submitted. She had been brilliant, brutal, and a total surprise. Afterwards, reading her official file was just a necessary, and almost pointless, step in her recruitment.

Maria’s Air Force career had been filled with high marks, and clear praise. She had excelled at the Academy, whizzed through flight school, and notched enough successful missions to make it clear to anyone reviewing her file that she was going places. 

That said, her file also contained subtly negative comments about her inclination to ignore unnecessary rules and her tendency to achieve mission objectives by utilizing unusual means. After translating the military obfuscation, Fury concluded that Maria was the best type of leader: committed to her command, creative in her methods, and protective of the people under her. Those traits also made her a bad soldier, and he imagined most of the older white men who she worked for didn’t know what to make of a smart, forward woman who was twice the strategist any of them were. 

Maria might not have known it when she was took that lynch-pin security outpost on Madripoor while outgunned and out-manned, but Fury would bet have his good eye that she would have soured on the Air Force in a few years just like he lost his taste for Delta Force. She was too pragmatic to let a mission suffer because of privileged fools, and too self aware to stay in a system stacked against best outcomes. He was thrilled at the time that they got Maria before the CIA was able to recruit her. 

Maria finally spoke, “Of course it’s complicated, sir.” He expected her to stop there, but she kept speaking. “Life is complicated, and what we have here is a SNAFU of epic proportions.”

“Your point Hill?” 

“My point is that I wasn’t the one who fucked this ship up, so why am I being punished?” she asked bluntly.

Both Fury’s eyebrows went up at Maria’s unusual crassness. She was more upset than he expected, and he had expected her to be pretty upset. As far as he knew SHIELD had been Maria’s purpose in life and the closest thing to a family that she had ever wanted. He knew losing both to betrayal stung and he understood that rebuilding was the only way she really had to tell HYDRA that it failed to destroy her. 

Fury had never really been tempted to think of Maria as anything more than a second in command. She so rarely showed emotion, and so often executed her job perfectly, that it was easy to think of her as her office, and not as a person. He had forgotten that Maria was a beautiful woman until Rogers had given her a second glance beyond what was necessary to size up a soldier, and then a third look that lingered with desire. It was easy for Fury to ignore Rogers behavior, but it reminded him that Maria was more than a well honed tool. 

Overall, Fury thought that Maria liked that he ignored everything about her gender, appearance, and quiet, steely personality. He was clear that his interest in her extended only as far as her skills. Most of the time he liked it too, but right now he was remembering that Maria Hill could be as a goddamn determined as bloodhound on a scent when she wanted to be. 

Fury spoke without thinking, “Because I need you to keep an eye on the Avengers.” He hadn’t meant to be so curt. He had planned to build up to the declaration; lay out his case as support first. But, Maria had a way to force his hand that always made him think of his sister. 

“You want me to be a glorified babysitter for a bunch of egotistical, costume wearing men and Stark?” Maria looked aghast and some of her horror seeped into her voice.

Fury answered without thinking, “Don’t forget Natasha.”

Maria refused to dignify his answer with her own response. Both of them knew that the Black Widow was as dangerous as the rest of the Avengers combined and twice as wily. Keeping an eye on her was hard enough when she was only working with Clint. Add in the rest of the Avengers and Maria was going to have her hands full.

“Why not Coulson? He likes them at least.”

Typical of Maria to hit the problem right on the head. 

Fury trusted Cheese absolutely, but Phil Coulson was the wrong person for this job because Phil did like the Avengers. More than that he was their fan. A friend would be good for the Avengers, a protector would be useful, and a fan necessary when the world invariably decided to dislike them because of their otherness. But, the Avengers really needed someone to keep them on task and remind them that the job was mostly hard work. A smart check on their egos, a solid moral center to balance their demons, and a human touch to keep them connected to a world they stood apart from. 

“They don’t need someone who likes them, Hill. Let me tell you about my sister Sylvie.”

Maria’s eyes narrowed, and her shoulders pulled in slightly at his abrupt shift in topics. In all her time at SHIELD Fury had never spoken to her about anything involving his life outside the organization. Neither of them sought out personal moments. He had never commented on the fact that the only thing mildly personal in Maria’s office was the basketball with Michael Jordan’s autograph, and she had never offered any information about the memento, let alone the rest of her personal life.

Fury hadn’t talked about Sylvie in years, so he expected it to be hard to start, but the words came fast and naturally. 

“She was an unholy terror from the moment she was born according to my mother. She was seven years older than me. My first memory of her is as a stick thin kid with skinned knees. She was the worst kind of bossy because she was always right. She had the brains to know it, the balls to say so, and the high minded morals to stick to her principles.”

Maria didn’t say anything, but the slight hitch in her breathing and brightness in her eyes let him know that she was intrigued. 

“I, on the other hand, was a snot nosed punk who she was responsible for while our mom worked. The first time I sassed our neighbor, Mrs. Watson, Sylvie knew just by looking at me. She dragged me back there by my ear. Made me knock on the door and apologize profusely and sincerely. And then she made tell my mother what I did, and if that wasn’t enough she made me mow Mrs. Watson’s yard that entire summer.”

The smell of fresh cut grass still made him feel slightly ashamed, and nostalgic for the old woman’s sweet tea and stories about being a dancer in New York before the depression. 

“I didn’t learn my lesson. In some ways I was just as pigheaded as her.” 

They hadn’t looked much alike. She took after her father in build and coloring, and had their mother’s features. He had always been the swan in their family of ducks, at least when it came to appearances and he never understood why until he met Nick. Even with a white father, he had fit right in with the rest of the Joneses when it came to being a stubborn, moralistic jack-ass, though. 

“When I was twelve, I started to run with a group of other little punks. Atlanta had plenty of trouble to offer if you knew where to look, and we knew.” Fury laughed. He thought he had been a punk, but really he had been a child pretending at something he didn’t understand. 

“Sylvie was nineteen, waitressing to save money for Spelman, and trying to make sure I didn’t die of stupidity.” Fury stopped. The words that came at first so easily, weren’t there anymore. 

Maria let him have the moment because she was a good listener, which didn’t really surprise him. Fury knew that she was as observant as a hunter on the prowl, and more patient than the pope. He had watched her listen to agents debrief and keep a straight face when they talked about the things they had to do make the mission a success. Maria didn’t judge so much as pragmatically weigh the most brutal violence against the mission outcome. Fury had never realized that those sessions were more confessional than debriefs for the reporting agents. 

Maria was well practiced at letting a person speak without her reaction affecting their story. All he could tell was that Maria was mildly curious. She had worn the same look when Coulson had told her about Obadiah Stane orchestrating Tony Stark’s assassination. Fury had only seen her truly horrified twice--the first time when he shook Natasha’s hand after Budapest, and the second when Maria learned about what SHIELD really was. 

Fury rubbed his good eye, and focused on finding the words to start again. Even when he was still Marcus Jones this had been a hard story to tell. Now the distance of years and a different name made it even harder to remember his old life. 

Maria must have assessed the situation and realized he needed help. “What happened, sir?” She knew that wasn’t enough, that he needed more support to tell this story. She continued, “What happened to Sylvie?”

Of course she heard the approaching tragedy subtly coloring his voice. She read his body language and knew that this was a story without a happy ending. Maria Hill was too aware of how a person lived with emotional scars to miss that he was sharing an old wound with her. 

Fury spoke quietly, “It was a Friday, pay day if you had a job, and Sylvie was closing with the cook, and another waitress, like every other Friday. The cook lived a block over from the diner, but Patti lived in our neighborhood too.”

He had found his rhythm again, and the words came with a ferocity echoed by his feelings. “They skipped the bus on nice nights. Even with tired feet, Patti liked to feel the fresh air for a while and enjoy a little peace and Sylvie kept her company.” 

If he went for a walk on humid summer nights, heavy with bugs, and a comfortable darkness he would swear that Sylvie was walking there with him.

“Patti’s husband was one of those fellows everyone knew about, but never outright said anything.” Fury grimaced as he spoke. “It’s like how folks didn’t talk about my daddy being white, or that Miss Lettie and Miss Lily liked each other more than any husband they weren’t looking for. Folks knew things, but no one ever talked about ‘em.” 

Maria nodded. Fury knew enough about her neighborhood in Chicago to figure she understood exactly what his neighborhood in Atlanta had been like.

“I don’t know why that Friday was different. Maybe because Patti’s husband was waiting on the porch for her to get home. I don’t know if he was hoping to find a bit of cool air, or if he was already too jumpin mad to be inside. All I know is that he holler’d down the walk and demanded Patti’s tips before she even opened the gate.” 

Afterwards, Fury had been too distraught to ask the questions he now wanted answered. “I don’t know if it was a slow night at the diner, or if Gus just was too drunk to count right, but he thought Patti had held some money back. He thought she should’ve gotten better tips on a pay day.”

Fury hoped that Patti had held some money back. She deserved to remember what independence felt like and to have that moment of security that came with ready cash in your pocket. 

“We all knew Gus hit Patti, but it happened behind closed doors, so we pretended to be ignorant. That night though he raised his fist out there on the sidewalk.” Fury braced himself to the blow that was coming. “Sylvie didn’t know the first thing about a fight, but she didn’t need to. She stepped in front of Patti before Gus could land his first hit. Gus didn’t pull his punch, but he didn’t throw another one.”

One punch had been enough. 

“As I said Sylvie wasn’t much of a fighter, and she didn’t know how to take the hit. She fell to the ground and hit her head. Her skull bounced according to Patti but not much. Patti had taken worse punches and fallen harder before. Sylvie, wasn’t the type to stay down, and she popped right back up. Sylvie didn’t say anything to Gus. She didn’t need to at that point. All she did was ask Patti if she wanted to go home with her. Patti said no, and Sylvie left. There wasn’t much she could do about Gus and Patti.” 

Fury shuddered slightly as the story’s ending overcame his well developed facade of indifference. “Sylive went home. Put her uniform away. Wrote me a note, reminding me to do the dishes, and went to sleep. She never woke up.”

“An epidural hematoma?” Maria asked gently.

Fury nodded. It had been bad luck, an act of god, or just plain stupidness on the universe’s part. Either way it changed his life. He cleaned up his act, graduated from high school, and enlisted. He never really thought about it, and certainly never told his mother, but he had wanted was to once be as brave as Sylvie when she stepped into that punch for her friend. 

Fury continued. He did have a point to this story. “Coulson wanted to recruit you as soon as he saw what you did in Madripoor. I wasn’t as convinced until I met you. You looked at me and straight up told me I was an idiot for not providing the necessary air support that would’ve taken out the gunners that was making it impossible to breach the capitol building.”

Fury had been taken aback by the young woman’s quiet bravery and uncompromising competence. He knew as soon as Maria Hill expertly critiqued SHIELD’s failed strategy and multiple bad assumptions that led to the coup in the first places that she had no idea that she was being recruited. She thought it was a debrief, and she expected that no one from a shadowy organization that belittled her training would actually listen to her comments. That didn’t stop her from delivering a detailed, full, post-op brief that was textbook perfect and brilliantly recognized each instance in which SHIELD’s actions created the conflict and then prolonged it. 

Fury knew ten minutes into the meeting that Cheese was right. Maria was perfect for SHIELD, but that wasn’t why Fury offered her a job at the end. “You were brilliant in Madripoor, but I offered you the job because you sounded just like Sylvie when she was disappointed in me. Madripoor wasn’t your fight, and it certainly wasn’t your mess, but you stepped into the punch, and then you stuck around to clean it all up, and you never expected to get any credit for it. You did it because it was the right thing.”

“The Avengers need someone like that around. Coulson sees them as heroes and as a result he acts heroically. You see them as people who make mistakes like you do. They’re real and flawed to you so they know that your praise is sincere and your criticism honest. But, mostly Hill you remind them that doing the right thing sometimes mean taking a punch to the face for a friend and knowing no one will thank you for it.”

Maria held his gaze for several long heartbeats before she nodded and returned to business. “So how do I get a job with the Avengers?”

“You have a meeting with Ms. Potts at nine hundred tomorrow morning,” Fury answered.

**Author's Note:**

> So after The Winter Soldier I started a fic to explain why Maria was working for Stark Industries instead of with Coulson. The fic never got anywhere, but when I rewrote it from Fury's POV I finally got somewhere. Thanks for reading!


End file.
